


From Food to Sacrifice

by rnr4ev



Category: Persona 5
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-09 17:13:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 3,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16454045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rnr4ev/pseuds/rnr4ev
Summary: short ficlets for shuake confidant week:Day One: Food|Foil|AntithesisDay Two: Teamwork|Partnership|CompatibilityDay Three: Neglect|Rejection|DeathDay Four: Domestic|Home|TrustDay Five: Blackmail|Exposure|TrickeryDay 6: Welcome|Initiation|Cheating





	1. Day 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm way to busy to do a full blown out fic per day so for now it's some short little ficlets for the week

Food

“What in God’s name is that?”

“Pancakes”

“They’re green”

“Yup”

“And have candy corn on it”

“Yup”

“Is this because I said we couldn’t go trick or treating?”

“Why would you possibly think that” Akira replies batting his eyelashes innocently.

Goro rolls his eyes and grabs his fork, stabbing it into the stack of oddly colored food.

“Because I _know_ you”

 

Foil

“Goro, could you explain why my best friend is frantically raiding the pantry for aluminum foil?”

“Why Akira I don’t know what you mean, as you can see I’m seated right here waiting for the cup of coffee you promised me.”

Akira gives him an unimpressed look and points to Ryuji, who has succeeded in his quest and is now molding the foil into a hat shape.

“I may have convinced him that the government can read his thoughts without it.”

Akira looks at his extremely smug boyfriend and rolls his eyes.

“Ryuji, Akechi was joking you don’t need that.” he says, stilling the boy’s hands.

“For real?” Ryuji replies, suspiciously glancing between the two.

“Of course, everyone knows that it’s the aliens you need to watch out for, not the government” Futaba chimes in, high fiving Akechi as Ryuji’s face goes pale.

Akira smiles and rolls his eyes, going over to kiss the smile off his boyfriend’s face before he can add more fuel to the fire.

 

Antithesis

 **Ryuji** : God, did you hear the last interview with Akechi? He was going on and on about how he’s opposite of the Phantom Thieves

 **Yusuke** : He did carry on for quite awhile, antithesis, wasn’t that the word he used?

 **Makoto** : in all actuality he’s using that word wrong considering that we both are on the same side.

 **Ann** : what about you Akira?

 **Akira** : You know that saying about how opposites attract?

 **Futaba** : AKIRA NO

 **Akira** : AKIRA YES


	2. Day 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tried out the name Ren for this one...

Teamwork

Joker let out a cry and staggered, pink aura of the spell the shadow had cast his way hanging off him.

Crow looked to Makoto, barely conscious on the floor and the rest of the team and made his decision.

“Panther pull back, Noir jump in and heal Joker, Skull and Fox with me”,

They hesitated a split second as Joker wobbled on his feet, grabbing a fistful of yen to hand over to the grinning shadow.

The team followed.

 

“Hey, thanks for what you did earlier” Makoto broached as they rested in a safe room.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about” Akechi replied, watching as Ren switched out his equipment.

Makoto glanced at him, following his gaze.

“You really care for him don’t you?” She asked.

Akechi merely sighed.

“Perhaps.”

 

Partnership

Ren glances up from the book in his lap.

“Hey Goro?” He asks in a tone that let’s Akechi know his boyfriend is about to say something dumb.

He sighs.

“Yes dear?”

“Would you say we’re partners in crime?”

Akechi rolls his eyes and grabs the tacky detective romance novel from his boyfriend’s hands.

“You read too much fiction.”

 

Compatibility

Ann takes a long sip from her milkshake, glancing up from the magazine in her hand to look at Akechi.

“Hey, when’s your birthday?” She asks, an entirely too innocent expression on her face.

Akechi narrows his eyes in suspicion.

“June 2nd, why?”

“No reason” she chirps back, bending over the magazine with renewed interest.

Ren wanders over and leans over Ann’s seat.

He smirks.

“So you’re a Gemini Goro?” He asks, coy smile across his face.

Akechi rolls his eyes and grabs the magazine from Ann.

A compatibility chart...of course.

“You know these things are fake right” Ren says, as Akechi hands the magazine back.

Ann shrugs.

Akechi leans over to Ren.

“Oh? Was I mistaken then? I was under the assumption that this magazine was yours Ren.”

Ren sputters, blushing fiercely as Ann giggles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sad that we don’t know Protag’s birthdate so I can’t go all Jun Kurosu on him.


	3. Day 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did two drabbles for the prompt death. the very last one is spoiler-y so feel free to skip it if you haven't played past 11/20

Neglect

“Mooonaaaaa I’m dyyyyyying”

Morgana sniffs at him and rolls his eyes.

“No you’re not”

“But Akechi hasn’t responded to any of my texts in hourssss”

There’s a pointed silence and then,

“That’s because I am literally sitting right next to you”

 

Rejection

“Umm, Akechi-san I want you to have this.”

The girl is fidgeting, nervously twirling at her brown hair and rocking on her heels, glancing away from him with a fierce blush on her face. It doesn’t take a detective to figure out the contents of the letter she’s holding out towards him.

He sighs inwardly, fourth time this week, and then puts on his most sympathetic expression.

“I’m sorry but I already have someone” he says, gently pressing the letter back into her hands.

She squeaks, “Y-you do?”

He nods and then because he’s not a total jerk adds,

“You should try asking the boy who sits behind you in class, I know you like him as well and I suspect he returns your feelings.” If possible the girl flushes a deeper red and promptly disappears out of the classroom.

 

Akechi sighs and pulls out his phone.

 **Goro:** Okay, you win. Fourth one this week. Honestly…

 **Akira:** Told you it’d be more than three after that interview  <3

 

Death

“Don’t be mad” Akira begins which is how Akechi knows that he’s definitely about to hear something that will make him mad.

“What did you do?” He asks, bracing himself for the worst.

“Nothing bad, I got you a present actually” Akechi quirks his eyebrow.

“A present?”

“Yup, I wanted to get something nice for my boyfriend.”

Akechi feels his heart flutter and then quickly suppressed it before it can become distracting.

“So why am I not supposed to be mad about that?”

“Because I needed Futaba’s help to get it and then she told Yusuke, who told the group chat and now they want pictures.” Akira quickly rambles out, shoving the package into Akechi’s hands.

Cautiously Akechi opens it, takes one look at the contents and then flings it at Akira’s head.

 

“AKIRA FOR THE LAST TIME I AM NOT WEARING CAT EARS!”

  

Death (11/20 spoilers)

Akechi watches the blood pool beneath him. He takes one long shuddery breath and closes his eyes shut before regaining his composure. This outcome was inevitable, he’d known that from the moment he’d ascertained their identities. It doesn’t matter anyway, once he’s done with Shido he’ll join _him_ anyway, all he can do now is keep everyone else safe. It’s what _he_ would have wanted. He raises his phone to his ear.

“It’s done. We don’t need to go after the others.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaand we're back to Akira for this chapter


	4. Day 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RenRen

Domesti(cated)

“He’s kinda like a cat dude, no offense Mona.”

“I’m not a cat!”

“I said no offense!”

Akechi rolls his eyes and turns back to his homework, if Ryuji has something important to say, he’ll bring it up after him and Mona are done arguing.

He gets three problems in when Ryuji turns back to him.

“Aaaanyway, like I was saying, he’s kinda like a cat.”

Akechi sighs and puts down his pen.

“Who is?”

“Renren”

Akechi quirks an eyebrow.

“I’m listening.”

“Sleeps all the time, stupidly agile, complains if we don’t give him enough attention, but ignores us if we give him too much attention.” He leans in close.

“And you can’t deny he was purring during movie night when you two got all cuddly and shit.”

Akechi flushes and glances over at Ren, half sprawled out over Leblanc’s counter, dead asleep.

“For once, you might have a point.”

 

Home

“Honey, I’m home.”

Sojiro turns an interesting shade of pale and coughs loudly beside him.

Akechi rolls his eyes but plays along, flashing a pearly smile.

“You’re back awfully late.”

 

“Honey, I’m home” Akechi rasps out, staggering through the door. Seven teenagers, two adults and a cat glance to the door in shock but it’s only one pair of eyes that hold Akechi’s own. He stumbles and falls and Ren catches him.

“You’re back awfully late.”

 

Trust

“Do you trust me?”

“I shouldn’t”

“That’s not what I asked”

“But that is how I will answer”

 

”Do you trust me?”

”Why should I?”

”That’s-“

 

”Do you still trust me?”

”I never said I did”

”But you never said you didn’t.”

 

”Do you trust me?”

”Yes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last one can be read however you see fit.


	5. Day 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tried my hand at the ever popular actual thief/detective au

Blackmail

“You know Detective…” Joker started, sprawling out leisurely across Akechi’s couch in front of the pile of case notes between them,

“With a face as pretty as yours, you didn’t have to resort to blackmail to get us to help you.” he continued, smirking down at Akechi’s blank expression.

“You know full well, that I have neither the money to bribe you nor the social standing to take on this case on my own, regardless of how pretty my face may be.” The detective responded, frowning as the smirk grew larger.  “And besides, this gives me the rare chance to observe a criminal organization from within.”

Joker tsked, “details, details… and besides, what’s stopping me from going to the police and turning  _ you _ in? I can see the headlines now, ‘Blackmail and Thievery, Disgraced Detective Working With The Phantom Thieves’”. He leaned back into the couch, long gloved fingers reaching up to twirl his hair.

“...and in the process, you’d get yourself thrown in jail, now are you going to help me come up with the escape route or not?” Akechi continued unimpressed. Joker huffed and jumped off the couch, coming over to Akechi’s side.

“I meant it you know. You really didn’t have to blackmail us.”

“I doubt you or your teammates would be willing to help the person responsible for tracking them down, especially without pay.”

Akira chuckled, a sound that caused the hairs on Akechi’s forearm to stand on end.

“Oh detective, what makes you think we’re doing this for free?”

 

Exposure

“Are you telling me, you did all of this” Goro gestures wildly around to the burning mansion before them, “all of this, on a misguided attempt at- at SEDUCTION?!” 

“That depends, did it work?”

The detective let out a barely restrained yell of rage.

“I tried to KILL YOU” he continued, pointing his empty gun accusingly at Akira.

Akira shrugs and takes a step forward.

 

“I tried and have been continually trying to get you arrested! You stupid, smug little man, what the hell are you thinking? I BLACKMAILED YOU” Akira takes another step forward.

 

“Well, detective I was thinking that the price for this heist would be your heart, since we established already that the blackmail was unnecessary.”

 

Akechi makes a strangled sound in the back of his throat before reaching forward to pull Akira towards him, slamming their lips together.

He breaks the kiss off, shoving Akira back towards the thieves.

 

“Don’t you ever do that again.” He lets out a huff and regains his composure, adjusting his cuff-links.

“Now if you all will be so kind as to excuse me, I have to do my job and you” he points to the Phantom Thieves, “need to make a daring and untraceable escape.”

 

Trickery

“And you didn’t see them escape?” Sae asks, massaging out the headache building in her temples.

“No, by the time I got the alert, both the contents of the safe and the Thieves were gone.”

“And the fire?”

“A parting gift, or so I was told from their calling card.” Akechi pulls it out of his briefcase, handing it over to her. She sighs. 

“Alright, you’re free to go Detective; take the night off; go out with your boyfriend or whatever it is you do.” Akechi frowns, looking up at her face.

“Are you sure?” he asks in genuine confusion. Sae glances up at him frowning briefly.

“I figured he’d want to celebrate. Shido is the one who brought the assault charges against your 'Akira' to begin with, I’m sure he’d be happy to hear his mansion got torched. Didn’t you know?”

To his credit, his smile never waivers.

“No, I was unaware of that fact.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Late posting because I forgot to write it earlier oop


	6. Day 6

**Welcome**

“ _ What the hell _ ” Akechi muttered under his breath, staring up in awe as Joker gracefully flipped over the platform, landed silently on his heels and twirled around just enough to smash the panel with said heel of his boot.

Panther clapped him on the shoulder.

“Welcome to the club,”

“H-how? I’ve seen him trip over his own feet” Crow stuttered out.

Panther shrugged helplessly, “metaverse” she said in lieu of an explanation.

Joker turned back to catch them staring and gave Crow a wink before gesturing them to follow. 

 

**Initiation (the action of beginning something)**

“I never liked you.”

Akechi blinked at Ryuji, wondering just where the sudden outburst had come from.

“I gathered as much. It’s only natural considering my predisposition for disagreeing with the Phantom Thieves' methods on live television.”

Ryuji sighed, kicking at the floor.

“Nah dude, it’s because you talk like  _ that _ .”

Akechi frowned slightly. 

“What’s wrong with how I talk?”

Ryuji looked at him,

“You don’t know? Eh, nevermind that’s not why I wanted to talk to you.”

“Then what do you want?”

“Look, I might not be too hot on you joining us and shit but you make Ren happy, and RenRen’s my best friend.” He straightened looking directly at Akechi.

“And I can see that Ren makes you happy too so just, I don’t know, don’t screw it up? Because if you do I’m gonna have to like beat you up and that’ll just make everyone more sad. Plus if he likes you then you can’t be  _ that _ bad.”

Akechi blinked back, processing what Ryuji had just said.

“I- thank you, I think?”

Ryuji shrugged, “Yeah, yeah, don’t mention it” and clapped him on the back.

 

**Cheating**

“Is something wrong?” Ren asked, smiling down at his disgruntled boyfriend.

“That’s” he pointed down at Ren’s shoes, “cheating.” 

“Oh? Sounds like someone’s just jealous that they’re the shorter one in this relationship.”

Akechi dragged a hand over his face, “I’m not shorter, you are literally wearing heels.”

Crow turned to Queen, who could usually be trusted to take his side in these types of disagreements if she wasn’t feeling particularly spiteful. Queen looked over to them and shrugged. “It’s not like any of us get to choose what we wear here.”

Ren smirked. “What’s a matter Crow? Are you not enjoying the view from waaay down there?”

Akechi pushed his mask out of the way, grabbing the lapels of Joker’s outfit to pull him down the extra inch to shut him up with a kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's literally midnight so it's a new day right? time to post


	7. Day 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Contains spoilers for 11/20 and beyond

Conclusions

Akechi stares down at his phone mentally debating with himself. 

Theory: Akira never checked his messages after committing to his daily activities. 

Evidence: anecdotes from the rest of the phantom thieves, visual confirmation during their dates, Futaba grumbling about the back-load of unread message icons whenever she swiped his phone. 

Conclusion: …

Akechi looks at the clock. His boyfriend should still be out helping Haru with her garden. He takes a shuddery breath, heart pounding in his chest and hits send.

 

Betrayal

Akira doesn’t see Akechi walk into the interrogation room, doesn’t see Akechi’s eyes widen at the bruises and injuries, doesn’t watch the moment his eyes harden and all light within goes out, doesn’t see Akechi put on the mask of his father’s assassin, his lover’s killer. 

What he sees is this: Sae’s and Sojiro’s concerned faces, Futaba eyes rimmed with unshed tears handing back his phone, Doctor Takemi’s tight faced expression of concern and anger.

 

What he sees is 3 missed text icons.

 

What he reads is this: 

I love you.

I’m sorry.

I wish we had met before all of this, maybe then you wouldn’t be…

 

Akira falls asleep cradling his phone, curled up around Morgana that night.

 

Justice?

He manages to make it to Mementos before his inevitable breakdown. His apartment too far.

He laughs and laughs and laughs, his throat aching and sore, tears nearly blinding his vision.

He laughs until his laughter turns to strangled sobs.

The shadows that can see him in his black and blue outfit scamper away in fear, but Akechi doesn’t care. Tomorrow he’ll walk outside; he’ll smile for the cameras and talk about how it’s such a shame that the leader of the Phantom Thieves is dead before he could be taken to court. He’ll smile pretty when the reporter asks him what he thinks of the election; then he’ll go home imagining the moment he gets to plunge the knife into his father, the moment the light drains out of those eyes and he too gets the ending he deserves.


	8. Day 8

Possibility

Even injured and exhausted, Akechi was fast, turning his gun just enough to miss everyone and hit the door control panel. Too bad for him and his cognitive double, Futaba was faster, sending Final Guard washing over everyone before the doors descend.

 

The shutter doors close with an eerie finality and the gunshots sound. Joker stays still in shock, standing out the door, one hand reached out to it. The team looks to Futaba and she pushes past her own exhaustion to search… and search and… There! It’s faint but, 

“I’m getting lifesignals from Crow.”

 

Acceptance

He blinks and the figure before him blinks back, eerie yellow eyes piercing through him.

He tries to take a step back, tries to run but the warmth of Joker by his side stops him.

He takes a breath.

“You’re me” he says to his shadow, and his chest constricts for a moment before becoming light, the shadow dispersing and settling back within him.

 

Sacrifice

“I won’t let you take the fall for this and that’s final.” Akechi stated, looking firmly at his idiotic, self-sacrificing boyfriend.

Ren clearly looked like he was willing to continue this argument but instead he took a deep breath and let the tension flow from his body.

“You’re right. Let’s talk about this tomorrow. It is Christmas Eve after all.”

Goro nodded, satisfied and scooted next to his boyfriend, settling in for warm cuddles.

In the morning Sae comes for them all and tells them what the cold seeping through his body already knows. 

He offers to turn himself in instead but Makoto and Sae won’t hear it. 

Instead they turn to the original case. Akechi’s not one for belief in Gods anymore but if he were, he can only hope that they’ll be kind enough to grant them a miracle.

**Author's Note:**

> I might switch between using Ren and Akira because why not? Also I for my readers, I have not stopped work on the shuake timeloop fic don't worry ^^


End file.
